https://www.vansaircraft.com/2023/10/bu ... ngrunsven/

Speaks for itself.

Sad as an RV builder. I'm sure this would be make for a good MBA case study.

Hopefully they can pull through.

They have a lot of problems, but lack of business isn't one of them. They hopefully will find the cash flow to live through their problems.

Whoa.

That is shockingly transparent for a company. There is no doubt much more to it, but most companies would be incredibly vague at a time like this.

No doubt that what Van's has going for it right now is that there's no competitor ready to step in and take over the market. If they can pull through they will undoubtedly lose some customers, but they're also going to keep a bunch because there just isn't an equivalent alternative.

What a shame. apparently several problems lined up at the same time to cause this.

I hope they builds the equivalent of a RV10 that will meet the stall requirements of the new MOSAIC regulation.

FYI Laser cut aluminum parts are fine if done right. a number of large manufacturers of aircraft and aircraft floats use laser cut parts and we are passengers in them all over the world.

They have pricing power, they’ll use it and raise prices, all RVs will get more expensive

This is what a solid, honest, private company looks like.

Most companies are publicly owned and have to present a certain front to the shareholders as well as the board. For them, best practices, good business decisions, and honesty come far behind stock price and dividend yield.

For all the complaints about the price of aviation parts, this shows the opposite can easily happen - if a company doesn’t charge enough to cover cost + risk. A couple of negative events at the same time and suddenly the bank account is empty and lenders are scarce.

Maybe the Service Bulletin writers will get laid off first.

Dave

I used to own a medium size company (and went through times like this) and it is amazing how well customers will hang in with you if you are straight with them and keep them informed. Vans is doing exactly the right moves.

It's interesting to see who Van's has brought in to do the consultation and to fill the temporary CEO role. Mikael Via was involved in a similar situation at Glasair Aviation quite a few years ago.

Van's has an extremely loyal customer base. Many customers are already talking about ways to voluntarily get cash into the corporate coffers to help get past this cash crisis - that says a lot about their loyalty.

That having been said, Van's did get themselves into a real pickle with defective primer that scrapped a bunch of kits, defective laser cut holes that has scrapped a lot of parts and left a lot of builders in limbo. They tried ineffectively to expand production and overcome COVID supply chain challenges - the magnitude of these screwups is considerable and is a major cash bleed.

I wonder how busy the phones were today at Kitfox, Rans and other manufacturers?

I hope they have some ability to recover some costs from their supplier that had the primer quality issues. Depending on the size, it often bankrupts a small supplier (in the US). If it’s offshore, they just close up shop and reopen under a different name. I’d be interested to know the quality of aluminum and how long it took to discover the corrosion issues too.
They have an uphill battle, I hope they pull through. It happens with the right team, but if they pull a Mooney, it will be another tombstone in the aviation industry.

Kitfox is apparently in good hands these days but when the old company, SkyStar, hit tough times in the early aughts they exhibited none of this integrity and transparency with customers that Vans is with this announcement (and they subsequently went into Chapter 7 c2005).

I sincerely wish Vans and the RV community the best outcome with this and I admire them for what they're doing here.

It's been a whirlwind few years for them with some issues outside of their control. I do think they will find funding and continue operations.

I have made minor investments in several small aviation companies of this type. Typically I do a convertible note. and if they need some money I would be interested in doing one.

a convertible note helps protect the small investor from the big guys coming in and doing a cram down.

investing in stock as a small investor, is usually a loser unless you protect it some how even if the company is successful when it is invested in by a big player.

Basically I will take the risk with them, especially as they have a good proven market and a good reputation to continue building the business.

but you need to be careful how you invest so as to make it have a much higher chance of "if they do well I do well"